RTÉ have blamed timing issues to explain why Lankum's Ian Lynch's speech about Palestine after winning Irish Album of The Year at The RTÉ Choice Music Prize was omitted from website recordings of the broadcast.
The prog folk band won the award for their album False Lankum and upon receiving the award, Ian Lynch spoke passionately to the audience about the situation in Gaza.
We’re really grateful to get this award, but to be honest it’s really hard to see how we can celebrate it with an actual live genocide going on.
"It feels like there’s very little to be celebrating to be honest and every day seems more and more hopeless than the one before it.
"You know, you’re trying to appeal to the consciences of people who may or may not have a conscience to begin with.
He would continue further, calling on the government to serve more severe sanctions on Israel.
Maybe we can put enough pressure on the government to introduce some actually meaningful sanctions on Israel. They are master tacticians and if the pressure raises high enough, they’re going to have to something about it
Lankum's Choice Prize acceptance speech pic.twitter.com/ah6i8wvms8
— The Point Of Everything (@TPOEblog) March 8, 2024
Lankum's Acceptance Speech Omitted By RTÉ On Playback
While the speech was played during the live broadcast of the event on RTÉ 2FM, subsequently the speech was left out of recordings on the playback section on the RTÉ website. It was a move that angered artists like CMAT and Blindboy Boatclub.
i believe it was incredibly disrespectful of @RTE2fm to cut @LankumDublin ‘s winning speech out of their broadcast, in which Ian spoke so eloquently about the genocide happening in Palestine right now. so here it is again- hopefully more people hear it. all the love 🇮🇪❤️🇵🇸 https://t.co/Ihhz0WfSBz
— cmat (@cmatbaby) March 8, 2024
Lankum won the biggest music award in Ireland last night and their speech was cut from RTE because they used their platform to highlight genocide https://t.co/wzstPaAWIJ
— The Blindboy Podcast (@bbboatclub) March 8, 2024
After further anger online due to the speech's omission, RTÉ released a statement on their Twitter saying that due to the event running overtime and an automated system, the speech was left out of recordings for listen back.
RTÉ can confirm that Lankum’s acceptance speech at last night’s RTÉ Choice Music Prize was carried in full, live on RTÉ 2fm, without any interruption.
"Audio file, which allow listeners to listen back to programmes are generated automatically. The RTÉ Choice Music Prize audio file was pre-programmed to record up to 11:15pm, allowing for a short overrun.
"As there was an unexpected and considerable overrun in the live event, neither the announcement of the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Irish Album of The Year, nor Lankum's acceptance were available in the listen back edition.
"The full programme, as broadcast, is currently being restored to the listen back edition and will be available online.
— RTÉ 2FM (@RTE2fm) March 8, 2024
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